Amar Singh | File Photo“You may call him a troubleshooter but he is a troublemaker in fact,” raged Sahoon Rawat. The district president of the youth wing of the Samajwadi Party could not contain his anger when he spoke of Amar Singh, the high-flying MP who was shown the door after chief minister Akhilesh Yadav wrested control of the party this week.
The Samajwadi Yuvajana Sabha office near the Janeshwar Mishra Trust in Lucknow has turned a war room for the young supporters of the chief minister fighting the old guards including his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav. They call themselves “parivartanvadi” (transformers).
The party once known as a haven for thugs and criminals now has an equal volume of IT professionals as members. They have two sworn enemies: Amar Singh and Shivpal Yadav, Mulayam’s younger brother.
The younger cadre think that Mulayam, the aging wrestler, has been dancing to the tunes of the duo. Shivpal may be leading the fight against Akhilesh but Amar Singh is the brain behind the camp inimical to the young chief minister.
Akhilesh and Amar Singh never got along well. Singh, a trusted lieutenant of Mulayam, had to stay out of the party for six years after he brushed Akhilesh the wrong way. He was reinstated only recently. He was accommodated in style. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha and appointed as the party’s general secretary.
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Amar Singh, however, was not one to be contended with the sops. He stuck to his ways from day one, Akhilesh and his loyal relative Ramgopal Yadav allege. Even senior leaders including minister Azam Khan, who mediated between Akhilesh and Mulayam, have accused Amar Singh of fomenting trouble.
The facilitator
Amar Singh stands out with his colorful personality in Indian politics. He rubs shoulders with corporate captains and movie stars. He can raise crores of rupees in fund in the blink of an eye. He has even donated $5 million to the Clinton Foundation!
He has bailed out the Congress-led UPA government and helped out Amitabh Bachchan in his hour of crisis.
Amar Singh has Shivpal Yadav eating out of his hand. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav, “Netaji” to the party cadre, cannot say no to this Rajput politician.
Akhilesh found himself in the bad books of the powerful lobby in the party when he rejected demands to award a highway-building contract to a company favored by senior leaders. The chief minister who smelled a rat in public works contracts took away the portfolio from uncle Shivpal. Akhilesh even tried to block the appointment of Deepak Singhal as chief secretary but later budged to the hard lobbying of Shivpal and Singh. He would have cut Singhal to size for handing over 450 acres of land by the Yamuna Express Highway in Greater Noida to Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Trust had Mulayam not intervened.
Singhal nailed his fate when he insulted the chief minister at a dinner hosted by Singh in Delhi in September. Mulayam and Shivpal were present at the dinner. A party MP present at the function recorded the conversation and sent the clip to Akhilesh. The chief minister booted out the chief secretary within hours, triggering a series of events that snowballed into the party being split.
Singh visited Mulayam soon after the sacking of Singhal. Mulayam removed his son as the party’s state president. Singh says he did not have any role in the decision but Akhilesh and his supporters are not willing to buy it. Shivpal replaced Akhilesh and launched a fight against him.
Ruling his master
Why is Amar Singh always assured of Mulayam’s attention? There are many theories going around. Mulayam could not avoid Singh who bailed him out when the Central Investigation Bureau was zeroing in on him. He needed Singh as the party’s marksman in Delhi. Perhaps he was afraid of Singh? “Netaji” had reasons to do so, a senior Congress leader said.
Singh was Samajwadi Party’s face in New Delhi for about 15 years until he was expelled along with former actor Jayaprada in 2010. Singh later returned to the party as general secretary. He, however, managed to unite his adversaries in the party when he got himself elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Singh was busy even when he stayed out of the Samajwadi Party. He formed a party named Rashtriya Lok Manch and fielded candidates in almost all constituencies in the 2012 assembly election. None of them won. Singh later joined Rashtriya Lok Dal. He contested from Fatehpur in 2014 Lok Sabha election but failed.
He was instrumental in helping the Samajwadi Party forge ties with leading businessmen in Delhi.
Singh came into contact with Mulayam at the residence of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Veer Bahadur in 1996. He joined the Samajwadi Party and quickly assumed the role of Mulayam’s confidante. He played a key role in Mulayam’s image makeover in national politics from a local politician known for his opposition to English.
Singh has made a name for himself as a behind-the-scene manipulator. He was even alleged to be behind the cash-for-vote scandal at the time of a trust vote by the UPA government in 2008.
Singh had raised serious allegations against Mulayam when he was ousted from the party in 2010. Yet he could come back to the party on his terms. His return had raised so many eyebrows. Azam Khan, Ramgopal Yadav and Naresh Agarwal came out in the open against Singh.
Mulayam wanted to have Singh by his side to present his party’s case in national politics and to raise funds ahead of the assembly election. He was convinced about Singh’s role in his absence.
Akhilesh, however, thinks otherwise. He is in no mood to tolerate the “outsider” any longer. That is why he chose to move against one of the most influential power brokers in India.
(Next: Hapless spectator to the big fight)
